The contemporary conflict between blacks and selected white ethnic groups (Catholic immigrants, Jews) is the product of competition for jobs in the secondary labor market. Radical economists have described the existence of a dual labor market within the American economy. The idea of this segmented labor market provides a useful way to integrate the conceptual arguments embodied in existing structural explanations of ethnic conflict. Under the hypothesis that the most intolerant ethnic groups are those employed in those labor markets in which blacks are also in search of employment opportunities, data from a 15 city survey of white ethnic groups (conducted in the late 1960s by Campbell and Schuman) were examined in light of four variables: (1) family income; (2) industrial sector; (3) occupation; and (4) relative presence of blacks within different industrial sectors and occupational categories. Results of the analysis suggest that high racial intolerance is strongly associated with a group's relationship to the economy, as well as with the larger socio-historical factors connected with industrialization and time of immigration. Additionally, political conflict over immigration legislation, exclusion acts, and contract labor laws was related to the same labor market practices which produced ethnic antagonism. It appears that while members of particular working and middle class ethnic groups are busy protecting their own interests, the crucial factor generating competition in the labor market, a tenuous and unstable economy, is never clearly identified or addressed. (Author/WI)